Nature Pictures-Help

Hello everyone.

Was wondering if anyone out there might have some info on how to take pictures of night sky (stars) and pictures of streams/rivers? ( What makes the water foggy looking?)
Thanks a bunch for any help.

For foggy looking water you need to open the shutter for longer - between 1/8 and 1 second (depending on flow rate of river) but this is not a hard rule so experiment accordingly. Because of long shutter speeds a tripod is a must.

For night photography, see Lost America. Some superb images, and an intro into technique.

http://www.lostamerica.com/lostframe.html

Hi Bobby,

The foggy looking water is created by the motion of the water during the exposure. It is created by keeping the shutter open for a period of time, for example 1/4 second to 3 seconds. This is just a guideline and should not be taken as the absolute truth...experiment.
You will also need something to secure the camera so that it cannot move during the exposure: tripod, beanbag, rucksack, lunch box, wall, pile of stones, or whatever. You may also need something called a neutral density filter or ND filter, as you may see it written. This filter reduces the brightness of the light entering the camera without changing any of the colours.

Set up the camera so that you get the view you want and secure it.
On a camera where you have the option of setting shutter speed, put it in shutter priority mode, (I think Pentax usually uses Tv now as the setting) set the shutter speed to 1 second, for example, half depress the shutter release and the camera should give you either an aperture or an error indicating that this is out of range. If this happens try a slightly shutter speed if the water is fairly fast running, or fix or even hold the ND filter in front of the lens.
Once you are happy that it is going to work, set the camera's self timer, set or hold the filter in place, if you are using one and press the shutter. Hey Presto, you should have romantic flowing water. If it is too misty try a faster shutter speed, if it is not misty enough, try a slower shutter speed.

If you are using a digital compact without the ability to set shutter speed then you may still be able to get the effect by holding an ND filter in front of the lens during the exposure. I don't know what it is called on digiatal compacts but there should also be a setting whereby you can change the exposure value. Try experimenting with that also.
The nice thing about digital is that if you don't like it ...delete it... and try again

Best of luck